2023 & 2024 Riding Journey

#3 FINALLY Riding Again

Phew, I've missed out on lessons for two weeks because of bad weather.  Yuck.  So it's been two weeks since I've been in the saddle and I was honestly so looking forward to it, despite the fact that the day was going to be cold and windy.

To make things even better, my Friend (that is her official name for this journal) was also going to have a lesson with me.  I don't get to lesson with her very often, but every once in awhile...  Plus, both Vivie and James showed up for a lesson as well.  

Friend got to ride Romeo, Vivie was on Mariah, and James got Cordell.  I got to ride sweet Riggs again.  We all rode in the indoor arena, so we could, to paraphrase my trainer, "Huddle in the corner like penguins out of the wind when you take breaks." 

It took some fiddling to get my stirrups adjusted.  I wasn't riding in my favorite reddish brown saddle, but a different one.  Whoever rode in it last had long legs, cause I sure had to shorten those things by like, four or five holes.  But thankfully I got them adjusted just right, I think.

Vivie and Friend were already mounted before me, and James was close behind when I mounted up.  I kinda wandered about the arena a little bit before I could find a way to get up next to the arena fence without getting in anyone's way. 

Trainer didn't give me anything to do, so I started the making a circle in each corner exercise.  I also tried to make sure Riggs had a fairly active walk going.

I think I made about three circles before my trainer told me to pick up a riding trot and just go around the arena for a couple of laps to warm up.  The others had already done some form of trot warm up, and after I was done with that, my trainer said that we (meaning Friend, Vivie, and I) were going to do some lateral work.  I liked the sound of that, lateral work is tricky, but also fun.

So Riggs and I trotted around the arena.  At one point my trainer told me to speed her up a little, saying Riggs had to go a bit faster than what she wanted to.  But that was pretty much it.  It felt good to just do a basic rising trot.

After that, I joined Vivie and Friend in standing for a break while my trainer explained what we were going to do next.  Turns out the lateral work was going to be that 'stepping over the pole with the outside foot first on a circle' exercise.  Vivie and Friend hadn't done this exercise before, but as you know, I have.  I think this is my fourth or fifth time of it.

My trainer apparently likes introducing this exercise to people who've ridden with her for awhile but have never done it, because it feels so weird the first time to us.  See, my trainer always tells us to not pull back on that inside rein on a circle.  That is something that you don't do.  So we're trained not to do that.  And then, along comes this exercise where you do have to take up some form of contact (though you don't want to be cranking the horse's head around).  So that just feels weird after you've been told not to do that for however long.

Part of the goal of this exercise is to get the horse to step under themselves with the inside hind leg even more.  Doing so makes it so that they face the pole with the outside shoulder.  Another thing my trainer said was that she didn't care if they missed the poles while doing this.  Usually, she is very specific about, if you're on the circle of poles, you do everything in your power to go over the middle of those poles.  But for this exercise, she didn't want us to worry about that.

But, on the other hand, she didn't want us to fall into the temptation to straighten out.  Like, if we got something wrong, she didn't want us to break the bend and go straight.  We were to keep the bend as best we could.

My trainer asked if any of us had done this exercise before.  Of course, I have, so I raised my hand and said so.  But apparently Vivie and Friend have not.   So, I got to serve as the demonstration. 

I got to the pick the direction I was going, and I chose to go on my easier side, which is to the right, or clock-wise around the circle.  It helped also that Riggs is pretty good at this, and I've had experience in lateral work on Shorty.  My trainer stood in the middle of the circle to help direct me.

It wasn't too hard.  You just have to be ready to make adjustments with your hands and inside leg.  One of the temptations, when you get close to a pole, is to clench with your seat to see if you can force them to step over with the outside foot.  My trainer told me not to do that, it doesn't help.  At various points, she also told me to use more inside leg to get the hindquarters to move over more.  It can be all too easy to focus on the outside shoulder, and forget about the hindquarters where the main work is done.

When we got one foot over the pole, (which didn't take too long) my trainer had me ride Riggs straight as a reward.  This is important, that you go straight to reward them afterward, and not just keep making an ordinary circle.  If you keep making an ordinary circle, it's harder for them to tell that they did something right and are being rewarded for it.  But if you go straight, it tells them directly that was what you wanted.  Plus, it gives their muscles a break.

After that, my trainer had me come back and do it again.  Again, it wasn't too hard, it ebbs and flows.  Sometimes you'll have a nice bend for one pole, then you'll loose it and have to find it again.  The trick is to figure out how to keep it more consistently.  At the end, my trainer had me turn more towards her, like turn my whole upper body more towards here in the middle of the circle.  I could feel how that made a difference, and how Rigg's bend improved when I did that.

So, overall, the bending went good and it was nice to work on it again.  My trainer again mentioned that she liked the way I was using my hands.

After me, Friend went to try it and then Vivie.  Both were clearly having to figure out something new, but they did well at it and both got successful steps over the pole with the outside foot first.

After that, my trainer told all three of us to go ahead and let our horses have a trot out before ending the lesson.  This helped reset them so they wouldn't be all squiggly for the little kids later on.  It's important to let a horse have periods of going straight in between the lateral work. 

Somehow, I ended up going on direction around the arena, and Vivie & Friend were going the other direction.  I had an near collision with each on them, because we weren't sure who was going to come to the inside to pass.  They both told me they'd be the ones coming to the inside, so that's what we did lol.  

Adding another level of complexity to this was that my trainer told all of us that James was going to be doing running walk along the rail, and that all of us were to be the ones coming to the inside to pass him.  So... that added another level to think about.  Sometimes I would come out from the rail to pass James, and then come back in to be passed by Friend or Vivie.  (Remember, the indoor arena is smaller than the outdoor, and four horses can make things crowded.)

Still, we're all competent riders with competent horses.  Yes, it does take a level of alertness and preparedness, but when it's all going good, we can really flow.  I so enjoy that feeling of flowing, when we're all in sync. 

That was pretty much the end of the lesson.  I did walk Riggs around for awhile, and my trainer pointed out that Riggs was offering me some good contact.  That lateral exercise can really make a horse ready and willing to offer contact, she said.  I tried to encourage it, but I didn't get very far with it.  That's alright though, it was a good ride and so nice to be back in the saddle again.

Actual lesson 2/7/2023